--> Many internet publishers are using RSS to deliver their newsletters, as a supplement to their e-mail delivery. Since many people no longer want to give their e-mail address away to publishers, this is a great way to keep your e-zine readership growing.

--> Publish living digital catalogues of your products and provide your customers with your latest product releases, broken down by categories they're interested in, and make it easy for them to order.

--> Provide your affiliates and marketing partners with RSS feeds they can promote to their visitors to better promote your products and still make a commission. Amazon.com is already doing it. When are you starting?

--> Create RSS autoresponders with scheduled messages, to keep in constant “marketing” contact with your prospects and slowly get them to point of purchase.

--> Provide limited-access content to your customers, employees, team members and even investors, without fearing other unwanted eyes. Use RSS for internal communications, teamworking and other needs.

--> Provide your customers with easy access to software updates, delivered to them exactly as they become available, without fuss of having to visit your web site or deal with huge e-mail attachments, which would get blocked by spam filters anyway.

--> Newsreporters are constantly bombarded with e-mail, so why not instead deliver your press releases via RSS? Or even better yet, why not deliver some of your releases as video comments, interviews or statements from your company managers or owners?

--> Help your visitors keep up with what’s going on in your web forum, by publishing your latest forum posts or whole threads via RSS.

And yet these are still only a few examples of what you can do with RSS today, since something new comes up almost every day.

Are you as well already among those taking advantage of marketing & publishing power of RSS?

Some Issues You Want To Consider

1. Generally speaking you will be more concerned with up-front and recurring fees rather than discount rate that processing companies will quote most prominently. The hidden fees generally eclipse discount rates – especially for low volume start-up businesses.
2. Try to accurately estimate your business volume when you fill out your applications. The risk department at your processing company can put a freeze on your account if your volumes move significantly outside estimates you have provided them.
3. If you do experience a sudden spike in orders, you should contact risk department of your processing company to make them aware of spike BEFORE it hits their system. They may want to have you send them details about orders and provide proof that orders are legitimate. As inconvenient as this is, it is far better than getting your account frozen. For more information about Risk Department at a credit card processing company, please read our free article, “Credit Card Processing Issues You Should Be Aware Of” on www.ProfitChoice.com.
4. Make sure you understand what fees you will be responsible for if you need to cancel your account before end of your contract. You may find that you need to shut down your account for a variety of reasons, and you don’t want to find out about exit fees after you get bill!

In conclusion, you should start off your search for credit card processing by making a realistic estimate of your processing needs. If you believe you will be processing less than $1000 per month, then you will probably want to work with a third-party processor like PayPal (you can sign up for PayPal here). If you will be processing more than $1000 per month then you will want to work with a traditional credit card processing company (see list of processors above). You should be more concerned with upfront and recurring fees than with discount rate. Once you have selected a processing company, you will want to make sure you have your business license and business bank account. Finally, you will need to make sure that your shopping cart system supports your processing company. If you still have questions about Merchant Credit Card Accounts, you can access a free in-depth article on subject here.